Monday, 8 August 2011

Just so you know, I´m now selling all my 2011 kit. If anyone is interested, drop me an email and I´ll give you the prices.I have: Fanatic 100 Skate TE.Fanatic 86 Twin TE.North Sails Ice 5.7/5.3/4.7.

Had a great day teaching forwards at Flag yesterday- first time I´ve sailed there for ages as I normally steer clear now due to the number of out-of-control k***surfers who have pretty much ruined the spot for everyone, themselves included. Anyway, managed to slalom through the eedjits and get a few decent jumps and got my mate Paul looping onto his back (albeit without the board!)- one more session and he´ll be sailing away, no sweat.

Also, check out this random bit of video from my last day at Punta, caught by accident on Oisin´s GoPro as he was getting in the water...isn´t Punta beautiful, I love it.

Saturday, 6 August 2011

At last, I scored a low-tide freestyle/wave session at Punta! After a windy, but busy summer, Ifinally had time to roll down the northtrack and arrive at Punta alone to coincide with my favourite tide-time. Magical- the wind seemed to freshen as I put my toe in the water, and after a few runs alone to "warm up" (it´s 25 degrees), I was joined by two friends and had probably my most fun session of the entire summer so far.

My sailing finally seems to be coming back together after my long lay-off due to injury and a full summer spent coaching- I nailed some pretty high shakas, nice backloops, forwards, double flakas, flakas on the wave, and a couple of takas amongst other things. I had a bit of a smile on my face afterwards as I have had a disappointing summer from a sailing-level point of view (I have been sailing pretty average to poor mostly). It was nice to sail a bit more like I was last year again, pity it took all summer, haha.

Anyway, off to Flag today to teach port-tack forwards with someone who has an axe to grind with the forward loop from last year- I´ll keep you posted...

Thursday, 4 August 2011

I´ve had alot of sailing this summer, albeit mainly in a teaching role, so it was good to get out the last few days and just freesail for a bit. Sunday was especially good- it´s been a long time since I´ve sailed at Glass with so much wind, and there was a small wave to ride aswell which made it doubly fun. A bit hairy out there, especially for myself, Oisin and Will, who were looking for ramps to jump on the way out (awesome ponch conditions!) and had to dodge the out-of-control hordes who were congregating at the corner of the reef. Great fun, thanks to Jerry Bligh for these couple of shots taken from the point...

Welcome to the site!Aswell as regular features and news updates from Fuerte, I am going to be using this site to promote my windsurfing clinics.
After 15 years on the island,having competed in the PWA freestyle world cup and now representing Fanatic Boards and North Sails, I have decided to give something back to the sport which has given me so much over the years.
My aim is to provide clinics "tailor-made"for each individual, with a strong emphasis on practical in-the-water instruction, backed up by on-the-beach tuition and video analysis. The consistent conditions here in Fuerte make learning so much easier and, perhaps equally important, more fun than the typically inconsistent, cold UK - why not come over for a week and improve your windsurfing by a year!!!I can help with any manoeuvres from carve-gybe through to advanced jumping and freestyle, just email me with your wish list and we'll take it from there! Over the next few months, I am going to be video-chronicling manoeuvres which you can check out on the right in my tricktionary sections. This will give you some idea of the things we can work on, or, if you can't make it over here, you may find them useful to help understand and break down a manoeuvre you would like to learn (hopefully, the slow-mo will help in this respect!).Just click on the trick and scroll down..........Anyway, keep checking it out as I have loads more in my bag of tricks and will be updating as and when I get the footage.If you're interested, e-mail me on gibboinfuerte@yahoo.co.uk See ya in Fuerte? Stephen.............